The Body in the River (6 page)

The CSI added,
‘
Her camera
’
s in the other room.
’

Brookes frowned.
‘
What about cash, and the TV and music centre?
’

Middlemiss answered,
‘
There
’
s about forty-five quid in her purse and the TV and music centre are in the lounge.
’

‘
What kind of thief would take the laptop and leave all the other stuff behind?
’

‘
None that I know, boss.
’

‘
So it
’
s probably what was on the computer he wanted.
’

‘
There
’
s also a rack for memory disks and that
’
s empty,
’
the CSO added.

Brookes nodded.
‘
Well done, Brian. So we may have a motive, we
’
ll have to find out what she kept on her computer. Joan Wilson was close to her, she might well know. Make a note, Jacqui; we
’
ll interview her again tomorrow. It
’
s coming together.
’

‘
One other thing, boss,
’
Middlemiss said.
‘
In your briefing, you mentioned that the pathologist said she drank some wine just before she crocked it. There
’
s no sign of an empty or
‘
alf empty bottle in the flat. There
’
s a rack of full bottles but none of them opened.
’

Brookes nodded.
‘
I suppose she might have stopped for a drink on her way home. What about a wine glass, was there one on the draining board?
’

‘
Nope, lots in the cupboard but none among the washing up.
’

‘
What about in the rubbish bin; any sign of a cork?

‘
No, boss, we thought of that. There
’
s not a cork or a screw top there.
’

There was silence for a long moment whilst the detectives thought over the various possibilities. Then Brookes turned to Rose.

‘
What do you think, Jacqui, anything from a woman
’
s point of view?
’

She frowned.
‘
If he strangled her with her tights, she can
’
t have been wearing them. So she must have taken them off when she got home.
’

Brookes smiled at her.
‘
Well-spotted, that
’
s exactly what her friend said; she always took them off and rinsed them ready to wear the next day.
’

Encouraged by the compliment, Rose continued,
‘
And she hadn
’
t washed her lipstick off; maybe she was expecting a visitor, sir.
’

Middlemiss chuckled, nodding to Rose.
‘
She
’
s not just a pretty face is she, boss?
’

Brookes ignored the comment. The three detectives stood for a while in silence, each thinking through these conclusions.

Then Brookes said,
‘
OK, three things we need to know: what time she left work, whether she stopped off for a drink on the way, and what time she got home. I doubt she brought anyone home with her; she wouldn
’
t have taken her tights off and put on the old woollen cardigan if she had.
’

‘
Or cook a meal just for herself,
’
Middlemiss added.

Brooked nodded.
‘
Then, sometime later, she let someone in through the front door; that means she probably knew him and wasn
’
t frightened of him. There
’
s a spy-hole in the front door isn
’
t there, Fred?
’

‘
Yes, boss, I checked, and the door
’
s self-locking. Anyway, you can
’
t get in through the street door downstairs without a key unless some buzzes you in.
’

Brookes nodded.
‘
OK, she lets him in. Then there
’
s a struggle in the lounge. Then in the bedroom, he kneels on her chest and strangles her with her tights; the pathologist found a bruise on her chest which supports that theory. Then he drags her through to the lounge and tosses her into the river. Next he searches the place, finds her computer, and takes that with him.
’
After a moment he added,
‘
OK, I don
’
t think we
’
re too far from the truth of what happened here. Who
’
s talking to the neighbours, Fred?
’

‘
Liz and Dave are on that, boss. I
’
ve told them just to do this building and the ones either side. Do you want them to spread out more?
’

‘
Not at this stage, no. Just one thing; find out when the dustbin men call. If the killer did bring the wine with him and then took the bottle away with him, he might have dumped it in the vicinity. OK, I'll have a look at the rest of the flat then see you back at Leman Street.
’
He looked at his watch.
‘
We
’
ll have a full team briefing at six and put it all together.
’

*

‘
To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.
’

Thoreau, Walden quoting Confucius

It was now 6pm on Monday, fully 46 hours since the violent death of Alison MacPherson. Brookes
’
team was gathered in the murder room, awaiting a briefing. Brookes called them to order and conversation stopped. There were a few shuffling noises whilst the team settled down, then complete silence.

Brookes stood beside Short
’
s desk. Behind him, the whiteboard was now covered with information. He had a broken billiard cue in one hand that he would use to point to relevant items on the board as he talked; not all the team
’
s equipment was state of the art.

‘
Right, first let me introduce DS Jacqui Rose to those who haven
’
t yet met her. She
’
s now part of the team and I expect each of you to help her settle in.
’
He glanced in her direction and there was a chorus of hellos. She smiled at the faces around her then looked back at Brookes.

He continued,
‘
Right, now let
’
s get down to business. First the victim: Alison Vera MacPherson, twenty-six years old, white Caucasian, born in Aberdeen. Single and with no current boyfriend. She lived at flat twenty-two, Riverside Mansions, Limehouse Causeway; a second floor flat that backed directly onto the Thames. She worked as an accountant for a firm called Luxury Homes Abroad. It
’
s an up-market company that does holidays for the very rich in exotic parts of the world. Alison was a graduate with bright prospects. The company offices are at Canary Wharf, one stop up the Dockland Light Railway. She had no car and travelled to work by rail, according to her friend, Joan Wilson, who ID
’
d her body at the morgue this morning.

‘
We know she worked on Saturday, the day she was murdered. Between one and two that day, she had lunch with her friend Ms Wilson. They had lunch in the Greedy Grape, a wine bar on the Canary Wharf complex. Then Alison went back to work. The Wilson woman confirms Alison was dressed in a navy skirt suit, a white blouse, and black high-heeled shoes; you will see the relevance of this in a moment.

‘
According to the office manager, Alison left work just before six. We next have a sighting of her in a convenience store in West India Dock Road, a few hundred yards from her flat. She appears in the shop alone at six fifteen pm on a security camera. She bought some lamb chops and green veg. From the PM, we know she ate a meal shortly before her death. We
’
re fairly sure she cooked it herself and ate alone.

‘
It seems she washed up immediately after. There was just one plate, knife, and fork together with the cooking pots and utensils on the draining board beside the sink. There were also empty food wrappings in the bin and the vegetables she didn
’
t use in the fridge.

‘
Now, here
’
s the first significant anomaly. The PM shows that she also had a glass or two of red wine a few hours before her death. But there were no glasses on the draining board and no sign of the bottle the wine came from in the flat, and she had no time to stop for a drink on the way home.
’
He looked around the faces in front of him.

No one spoke.

‘
This of course raises the question: what happened to the glass she drank from and the bottle? There were a set of six wine glasses in the cupboard, all clean; that seems to me like a full set. Why would she put the glass away after washing it and not the crockery?
’
He waited a moment then answered his own question.
‘
One answer could be that the killer had a glass of wine with her and then, after killing her, wiped both glasses clean then put them away, thereby making sure his prints weren
’
t on one of them. If that is the case, he no doubt took the bottle with him.
’

Stumpy Gerrard said,
‘
Was there any sign of a cork, boss?
’

‘
Good question, Stumpy; the answer is no and the corkscrew was in the cutlery drawer. It could well have been a screw-top bottle; either that or the killer was meticulous enough to put the corkscrew away after him and take the cork away with him.
’

DC Liz Foreman said,
‘
Was there any debris on the dining table, sir; anything that might suggest a bottle had been opened there?
’

Brookes smiled.
‘
Another good question, Liz; according to the CSI the answer is no.
’

He waited a moment, but there were no more questions so he continued,
‘
The other thing is her clothing. When she was fished out of the river she had her navy skirt and blouse on but no jacket; instead she wore an old woollen cardigan. Her legs and feet were bare. I think it
’
s safe to assume that when she got home she took off her jacket, shoes, and tights and put on the cardigan and house slippers. That indicates to me that she wasn
’
t expecting visitors; all the women I know want to look their best when entertaining.
’

Rose frowned at his sexist remark; exactly the same could be said of men. But she said nothing.

Brookes continued,
‘
At about eight pm, a neighbour across the hall heard Alison
’
s doorbell ring, then she heard the murmur of voices; she thinks that one voice was male and one female, presumably that of the deceased. But she couldn
’
t swear to that nor could she hear what was said. The neighbour neither saw nor heard anything else after that so she can
’
t confirm that Alison invited the visitor in. She said that she had her TV on later and wouldn
’
t have heard much from outside unless it was very loud.

‘
From our examination of Alison
’
s flat, we can say that there was some kind of a struggle. A coffee table was overturned in the lounge and a chair cushion was on the floor. One carpet slipper was found in the bedroom, one on the balcony. And in the bedroom, there were indentations on the bedclothes that suggested someone had lain on top of them. There were smears of lipstick on the pillow and what look like boot marks on the duvet.
’

He pointed with his billiard cue to a plan of the flat on the whiteboard.
‘
So, we have signs of a struggle in the bedroom and the lounge and a slipper found on the balcony. Now you can see that the balcony actually overhangs the river. Access to the balcony is through these sliding glass doors from the lounge.

‘
Now, forensics. Behind the leather cushions on the settee, George Hadley found a few hairs and dandruff that are not the victim
’
s. He
’
s confident he can get the DNA from them. Of course, they may or may not be the killer
’
s. But if we find a suspect and they are his, at least we
’
ll be able to put him at the scene.